Student development theory has been an important guide in practice; however, few theories focus on both the individual and the influence of the environment. Spencer's (1997) Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) examines the individual, the environment, and the role of environmental feedback on self-perceptions, with a specific focus on how this feedback influences student experiences and outcomes. PVEST allows for assessing the processes by which an individual can develop strategies to resist negative feedback from oppressive environments, as well as how individuals use different coping mechanisms. In this chapter, we apply PVEST to individual student-level exemplars, as well as examples within counseling and classroom microcontexts to demonstrate the importance of environmental influence as well as phenomenological individual differences in interpretations and self-perception. Ultimately, we demonstrate how PVEST is a theoretical mechanism to focus on both the person and their phenomenological experiences (PEs), and offer larger implications for use in higher education contexts.